8. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!
9. Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”
10. And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
11. (Hiram’s ships brought gold from Ophir; and from there they brought great cargoes of almugwood and precious stones.
12. The king used the almugwood to make supports for the temple of the Lord and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. So much almugwood has never been imported or seen since that day.)
13. King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.
14. The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents,
15. not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the territories.
16. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield.
17. He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three minas of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.
18. Then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with fine gold.
19. The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them.
20. Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom.